Cisco releases enhanced mobile device support

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Cisco today announced that its Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Solution is now available from the Apple App Store. According to a company release, the solution offers highly secure network connectivity from any Apple iOS 4.1 device, improving the productivity of mobile employees by giving them reliable access to business-critical applications while helping their organizations comply with corporate security policies.

With the AnyConnect Secure Mobility Solution, Cisco extends its support for devices that are becoming increasingly prevalent on corporate enterprise networks. According to Apple's financial results for the third quarter of 2010,  more than 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies and 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies are deploying or piloting the iPhone.

According to the release, Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Solution for Apple iOS 4.1 offers:

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-Seamless User Experience – Building on AnyConnect's existing always-on VPN capability on Windows PCs, the app uses Apple iOS' native capability to provide on-demand VPN connections and initiate a highly secure tunnel automatically when enterprise-level protection is needed.

-Enhanced Security – All communication is secured with up to 256-bit AES encryption using SSL or DTLS tunneling.  Information technology administrators can also enable corporate resource access on a per-user or a per-group basis and rapidly revoke access for lost, stolen or non-business-use devices.

-Persistent Application Access – Highly secure application access is maintained automatically from cellular to Wi-Fi network transitions, and vice versa, through the use of a configurable network-roaming option.

-Ease of Configuration – Policies and connection-profile information can be preconfigured and automatically updated from the Cisco  Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA 5500) family, with very little initial end-user involvement.

-Enterprise-class Authentication Support – The application supports the full gamut of Cisco ASA authentication capabilities, including multifactor authentication and digital certificates deployed using the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol.

-Optimized Performance — Cisco AnyConnect for Apple iOS natively supports DTLS VPN tunneling, which enables the optimal performance of latency-sensitive applications such as voice or video.